World Snooker Championship: Ronnie O’Sullivan cruises to 6-2 lead over Luca Brecel in first session at Crucible

Ronnie O’Sullivan motored into a commanding 6-2 lead over Luca Brecel in the morning session of their World Championship quarter-final at the Crucible.

O’Sullivan made the last eight after cruising past Hossein Vafaei, but knew Brecel would provide him with a much more difficult challenge.

The Belgian came into this contest in confident mood too after dispatching Mark Williams with ease, and he carried on that momentum here in a superb first frame.

Ronnie was rocked after Brecel drew first blood with a hugely-impressive break of 93 in which he averaged a shot every 12 seconds.

He was agonisingly close to claiming a century, only to miss the final red in an otherwise faultless frame for the Belgian Bullet.

The next frame saw O’Sullivan bounce back to his very best and he took it courtesy of breaks of 56 and 51.

Both players’ aggressive style made for an absorbing watch, and Brecel was clearly undeterred by the setback after taking the next frame 80-4 with a break of 68. Arguably the shot of the frame came when the Belgian clattered a yellow long, across the table to its own pocket, leaving Brecel ahead again at 2-1.

O’Sullivan levelled up the score again in a thrilling conclusion to the fourth frame, as The Rocket was left to clear up the table after Brecel missed a shot with the cue ball snookered behind the black. It showed the strength of O’Sullivan’s safety game and questioned whether Brecel could match it.

The answer to that question looked to be ‘no’ after O’Sullivan won a scrappy-looking frame 73-23 with a break of 59, as Brecel failed to get the snooker required.

It looked like Brecel had lost confidence as O’Sullivan won the sixth frame with a break of 128 as the world No. 1 was starting to purr.

O’Sullivan then moved 5-2 ahead in a pulsating seventh frame to win it 65-52 with a break of 58. It would be a heart-breaking moment for Brecel, who just needed to send a pink to the left corner, only to leave it on the lip. The Rocket had a three-frame advantage, but it could have been oh-so-different for the Belgian.

The signs were looking ominous when O’Sullivan claimed a fourth frame on the trot with a break of 85 to take a commanding 6-2 lead from the morning session.

Meanwhile, Mark Allen and Jak Jones are playing out a gripping quarter-final with the scores level at 4-4 after their first session.

The game started in an aggressive fashion, with Jones and Allen claiming breaks of 78 and 94 respectively to tie things off at 1-1 after two frames.

Allen was agonisingly close to registering a maximum break in the third game after prevailing 137-0 to move 2-1 in front, and this intriguing contest and ebbed and flowed both ways from there on.

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